Texting between handsets via wireless networks (in the various implementations comprising such services as SMS (Short Message Service), ANSI CDMA and others) has become a very popular method of communication. Devices with full keyboards, such as Blackberries and iPhones have in many places increased the popularity of texting by facilitating the ease of sending messages.
In many countries cell plans now cover all intra-country texting from a device for a flat fee or relative low cost. Similar plans cover the sending of text messaging to e-mail destinations, whether they be other mobile devices (such as those addressed to 16035551212@vtext.com, which are then delivered by the cell system to the handset connected to the Verizon cell network having cell number 603.555.1212 in the US cell network), or to regular e-mail addresses that may or may not be mobile.
Unfortunately for customers with friends in other countries, cell phone carriers charge significant per message fee for texting to cellphone numbers located in other countries. In this fashion, someone texting a friend in Argentina from the US, is forced to pay $0.40 cents per message using a service like Verizon or Sprint.
A need exists for a system that would allow users to avoid paying per-message texting charges when sending text messages to numbers in other countries, and for their friends to respond to the message in a similar fashion, all without requiring the use of the international services provided by the cell carriers.